NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) – The T.J. Martell Foundation, the music industry’s leading foundation that provides funds for innovative cancer research, is thrilled to announce the honoree and performance lineup for the 49th Annual New York Honors Gala, which will take place in the Big Apple and be held at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday (September 17). Esteemed music industry leader and Partner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Big Loud, Seth England, will be honored this year with the prestigious Lifetime Music Industry Award.
The gala is the foundation’s primary fundraiser of the year. It supports its mission of curing cancer by funding high-risk, high-reward research that could lead to trailblazing advancements in early detection, screening, and treatments. The award will pay tribute to England’s exceptional impact on the music industry and his unwavering support for the T.J. Martell Foundation’s mission and dedication to finding a cure for cancer.
“We are thrilled to be honoring our distinguished music industry colleague and dear friend Seth England with this year’s Lifetime Music Industry Award to commemorate his deep commitment to the foundation,” said Steve Gawley, REPUBLIC Corps. Executive Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs and Business Development and Chairman-Elect of the Board of Trustees, T.J. Martell Foundation. “We are proud to shine a spotlight on Seth’s dedicated efforts towards our cancer research as well as his pioneering work in the music world, and we look forward to celebrating Seth and his achievements with an exhilarating night of music!”
The evening’s program will include a fundraising auction and a writers’ round performance by three Big Loud artists shaping the country genre today: all-genre juggernaut and 11-time Billboard Music Award-winning superstar Morgan Wallen, Academy of Country Music (ACM) award-winning country/rock trailblazer HARDY, and critically acclaimed Nashville hitmaker and country singer-songwriter ERNEST. Archie Davis, Def Jam’s Chief Creative Officer / EVP, who received the New York Honors Gala Rising Music Superstar Award in 2023, will announce an initiative that will continue to raise awareness of early screening and testing.
“As a longstanding proud member of the music industry, I am grateful to see the unwavering dedication and generosity that our music peers put forth to help propel this vital cancer research,” said John Esposito, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, T.J. Martell Foundation. “As we look ahead towards the foundation’s 50th anniversary, this year’s gala is a great reminder of how far we have come as a foundation and how much further we still need to go in the fight against cancer.”
“We are incredibly thankful to the music community for uniting to support the foundation’s critical work in funding cancer research,” said Lynn-Anne Huck, CEO of the T.J. Martell Foundation. “Witnessing our donors rally around the fight against cancer and uphold the promise made between a father and his son is beautiful and inspiring.”
England is a music executive whose tenacious approach has changed and challenged industry standards for over 20 years. From working as an intern at Big Loud and pulling weeds outside of the building to becoming the company’s CEO and a partner in the business, England continues to prove that difference is better and that being outside the box is the Big Loud way. The 2024 Billboard Country Power Players Executive of the Year and the inaugural recipient of Billboard’s Country Power Players Choice Award – a peer-voted accolade given to the country music executive that industry power players think made the most impact genre-wide in one year – helms Big Loud’s multi-faceted business – Records, Publishing, Management, and Capital – and has helped guide it to unprecedented heights.
To date, Records counts over 100 RIAA-certified titles, 28 U.S. No. 1 country radio hits-and-counting, and more than 47 billion global streams across its roster of unparalleled talent, including Morgan Wallen, Lauren Alaina, HARDY, ERNEST, Charles Wesley Godwin, MacKenzie Porter, Larry Fleet, Stephen Wilson Jr., Dallas Smith, Griffen Palmer, Shawn Austin, Lily-Rose, Jake Worthington, Ashley Cooke, Lauren Watkins, Dylan Gossett, Kashus Culpepper, and Zandi Holup. To date, the Big Loud Publishing roster has penned over 300 singles including three Grammy Award winners (Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying,” Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” and “Blown Away”), and 90 No.1 hits in its 21 years of business for artists like George Strait, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, Florida Georgia Line, Faith Hill, Thomas Rhett, and more. Big Loud Management launched with Florida Georgia Line as its first client in 2011 and hasn’t looked back, implementing a game-changing hybrid model and quickly growing in capacity, representing a range of breakout talent and multi-platinum chart-toppers over its 12+ year history.
